Read and Patel repel Yorkshire's push

A match that had been made particularly memorable by a trio of contrasting centurions on its first three days was saved by a collective display of grit from Nottinghamshire's middle order on the final afternoon. None of the six batsmen who got to the crease on Wednesday passed three figures but all of them made some sort of contribution to denying Yorkshire victory in a game between two sides who can already regard themselves as title contenders.

Yorkshire's bowlers strove mightily to take wickets with the sort of frequency that would give them time to chase a target, but this pitch helped attacks while the ball was new and rarely at other times. Yorkshire's five seamers did not lack for effort or motivation, particularly in the first half of the day, when the cricket was a credit to the English professional game.

But Andrew Gale's bowlers were met with resolution, particularly from Samit Patel, whose 114-ball 76 was responsible for extending Nottinghamshire's lead either side of lunch, and also from Chris Read, who is so much a part of the fabric at Trent Bridge fabric that you could almost believe that he has had to step out of one of the famous photographs on the pavilion walls in order to come out to bat.

Read was 83 not out when the game ended at 4.50 and his unbroken 109-run stand for the eighth wicket with Vernon Philander finally slammed the door in the face of Gale's bowlers. By the time the players shook hands the spinners had been bowling for some time and the contest had been drifting peacefully towards sleep.

None of which made the game hugely less watchable for the spectators at Trent Bridge, many of whom had sat quiet and intent in the same spots for most of the four days. Rather like the young cowboy in the song by James Taylor - the American singer, not the Nottinghamshire batsman, you understand - these folk have spent months "waiting for summer, their pastures to change".

They probably relished the intensity of the cricket in the morning session when Will Gidman was caught behind off a quite beautiful Steven Patterson delivery which moved away from him and when the batsman James Taylor hooked Will Rhodes to the substitute Moin Ashraf at long leg and departed for a determined 125-minute 35.

That wicket left Nottinghamshire on 134 for 5 but Patel and Riki Wessels prevented any further breakthroughs being made until deep in the afternoon session when the two of them were out within seven overs of each other. First, Patel nicked seamer Will Rhodes to Hodd when he had rather cruised to 76 and then Wessels feathered a cut off Jack Leaning's offspin. Hodd did the necessary once again.

If Gale had then hung on to a very difficult one-handed chance at cover offered by Read's drive when the Nottinghamshire man was only 14, Jack Brooks would have another wicket and we may now be reviewing a frenetic climax. As it was, though, the game drifted away in what the famous Pogue, Philip Chevron, once described as "the death of afternoon". Those spectators stayed, though, as might oil on canvas, until the players trooped off. Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire members have spent dark evenings "thinking about batsmen and glasses of beer". They are determined not to miss a moment of the glad season.

The caravans move on. Nottinghamshire now travel to Hampshire while Yorkshire host Warwickshire on Sunday. Gale's men will have to do so without Adil Rashid, the county's request to have the legspinner released from England's tour to the West Indies having been turned down. Director of cricket Martyn Moxon admitted that he was "disappointed" by the decision.